Question of the Week

Anyone have any comments on the presidency situation? Send me your comments and I will post them all provided they are in good taste. State your opinion, just be classy about it. I am a little undecided on allot of issues. I am pretty sure the President won't read my blog. However, if he did, what would you say to him? Remember this is the safe room and also is MY BLOG so we don't have to worry about being politically correct. He wants to cater to the middle working class, so what are some of your concerns?

Duck Hunting Anyone?

This is the post I have been waiting to write since I left on Thursday. The way this was supposed to go was me telling you about gaggles of ducks and limits of snows. I had planned the perfect picture of limits of ducks and geese stretched across the tailgate with a group of radical duck hunters.

I have always loved duck hunting in foul weather. The colder the better! I have a new perspective now. We arrived in MO to the coldest air of the year. I can tell you first hand what happens when it turns off in the single digits on flooded rice and corn....it FREEZES! I never paid any attention to the weather. I was sure that there was not going to be any ice that our 4 wheeler wouldn't break through. The picture is of 4 hours worth of busting ice. I have a new perspective on that too. You could have played the finals of the NHL on this field.

Thats hunting. We had a great time even though I never loaded my gun. There was not a duck left in all of Kinnette, Missouri. We never even saw any local birds outside of the ones that live on the conservation project and that was limited too. The ducks just decided on Thursday to fly away. If you are deciding to go duck hunting, go to MO. Now that we are home, there should be record numbers show back up on the thawed rice and corn.

MO Duck Hunt

I sit in front of my computer wondering where my brother is. We were supposed to leave an hour ago. Any of you had that problem. You get all excited and the driver is late! Not good for my compulsive nature. I am ready to rock and get there to feel the balmy 4 degree weather. We backed into a duck hunt with one of his friends. I say his friends because I haven't see him shoot. If he turns out to be Elmer Fudd, he is our friend. If he turns out to be a crackshot, he may have to stay Zack's friend. I'm kidding. I know him. Great guy. To be honest, I am not expecting him to be a crackshot. I just hope he can stay upright in the water. There is only one thing worse than getting cold when duck huting, and that's getting wet and cold. Scroll back through the blog and you can read a funny story about that. It is too painful to recall a second time. He is finally here. Gotta go!

As most of you know, I am an avid outdoorsman, but also an avid father and follower of middle school and recreation athletics. We loose a little time in the field due to sports and school events, but there not yet giving scholarships to deer hunters so we do what we have to. There are allot of sports bashers out there that believe in crushing a kids dreams of going to college on scholarship in athletics. The odds are slim I know, but as long as there is a team to don the field, there is a shot at it with hard work and good grades. I get this one allot. "The only reason they go to school is to play ball. Most of them can't even write their name." I have been engaged in a few conversations this week about the future of our kids, and I must say, I feel pretty passionate about it. There are allot of haters out there that don't really understand what is expected of an athlete in college. I was wowed by an interview before the Alabama/Utah game. Alabama has a center that has not one, but two degrees. How does this relate to a Georgia Hunting Blog entry you ask? Well, nothing more than I am the author of the blog and this is what I woke up with on my mind. Pretty sad I know, but it is what it is I guess.

My younger son is in 5th grade and hasn't started getting letter grades yet. He is in the Gateway program. He also plays football, basketball, and baseball. My older son is in 7th grade this year. He plays football, baseball, and wrestling with a 96.75 average. I say that to say this. We lost 12 wrestlers this season due to grades. As parents we have to start getting involved in our children's acedemic lives. We have to stop expecting that they will have responsibility every second. Fact is, kids will slip up if you let them. Stay on top of it. I'm not saying to not teach responsibility, because I certainly believe in that. BUT THEY ARE STILL KIDS! Know what is going on with them. Take the time to check on their schoolwork with their teachers. This is the technology age. Every teacher is accessible through email through the school. Find out how your kids are doing.

Sure, I love going to the firing range and teaching my kids to handle a rifle or taking them to the field and teaching them how to read a rub line. However, I also love sitting in the Beta Club meetings. Funny thing, my son came home from his Beta Club induction and said, "Well dad, it's official. I am now a geek." I just laughed. I said, "Son, people call kids that work hard at school geeks. Do you know what they call them when they get out of school?" He sat with the typical teenage dumbfounded look. "Boss" I said!

One Season Out, Another One on the Way

Deer season has come and gone yet again. This year was a tough year where I hunt. The weather didn't seem to cooporate like I had hoped. With late season football and wrestling kicking off, time was not on my side either. I am sure I am just preaching to the choir here. If you have pleanty enough time to hunt, I figure you are either loaded with money or got laid off. Thankfully, I haven't been laid off. I know allot of people who have. Tough year to say the least. We did manage to take a few deer this fall. We didn't get settled in on a nice buck, but my 13 year old took a couple of does during muzzleloader season. It's always fun to see a kid take a few. I am interested to see what you alol have taken this past season. Send me in some pictures and I will get them posted. Give me the "what for" and the "what happened was" to go with it.

2009 is looking better already. I have a duck hunt planned in MO this weekend. I hope to have those envious pictures up on my blog next week. It is supposed to be a nice toasty 11 degrees the first morning. Art and myself are planning a spring turkey hunt in Wisconsin. It is always nice to get up and hunt with a good friend and partner. We are looking to avenge the Necedah hunt we had back in the fall of 2008. Mother Nature reached down and spanked us directly on the behind that week. As Pedro said, "I got sick". I didn't shave my head though. I managed.

As I said, 2009 is looking good.Art and myself are really going to give our outdoor show a run. Full Force Outdoors should be up and running after this year.The Sportsman Channel has agreed to run our show when it is ready for release. The beauty of that is the Sportsman Channel signed with Direct TV for 2009 so hopefully we can get our show ready in time to catch the last 2 quarters. If you want to sponsor an outdoor show, hit us up. We don't discriminate! We are an equal opportunity company. You would be amazed at the amount of money it takes to do an outdoor show. It all looks so easy on television. I have a newfound respect for those guys now that have been on air for so long.

I want to see those pictures from this past season. Send them to me and tell me the story. Who knows, if it is good enough and the pictures are good enough, I may try and submit your story into a magazine that I writee for. As Rodney Carrington says, "Show Them to Me". I am looking for the biggest rack. Get your mind right man, I'm talking about the deer! lol